BAGHDAD, April 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The U.S. occupation army in Iraq confirmed Sunday, April 18, the killing of ten U.S. soldiers in separate attacks across Iraq over the past 24 hours and an eleventh in a tank accident.

Five U.S. marines were killed in clashes Saturday, April 17, with Iraqi fighters in western Iraq, near the border with Syria, the military said in a statement, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Five marines serving with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in yesterday's fighting in the vicinity of Husaybah," said the statement.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch earlier reported on its website that five marines were killed and nine wounded in a fierce 14-hour battle with nearly 300 Iraqi fighters near the border town of Husaybah.

"In some of the fiercest fighting in recent weeks, five Marines were killed and dozens of Iraqi insurgents slain in a daylong battle that began early Saturday in Husaybah" said the American paper.

Three U.S. soldiers and four Iraqis were killed during clashes between American forces and supporters of Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr near the southern city of Diwaniyah, southeast of Najaf.

"Three soldiers traveling in a 1st Armored Division convoy were killed during a small arms ambush" at around 7:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Saturday, the U.S. military said in a statement Sunday.

A spokesman for Sadr said a militiaman and three other Iraqis were killed in the firefight with the occupation forces.

Another U.S. army statement said "a soldier assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed yesterday as a result of enemy action in Al-Anbar Province," west of the Iraqi capital.

The American army also confirmed Sunday that a U.S. soldier died of his wounds after a convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad on Saturday.

One soldier was accidentally killed and two others injured in northern Baghdad when their Abrams tank rolled over, a military statement said Sunday.

It added the accident occurred Saturday morning and the injured were treated at a nearby military hospital.

More than 80 American soldiers have been killed in April, bringing to more than 690 the number of U.S. fatalities in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March last year, according to an AFP tally.

According to the Associated Press the fatalities take to 99 the number of U.S. troops killed in April 1 and to more than 697 those killed since the war began in March 2003.

In northern Iraq, a U.S. soldier shot dead Sunday the daughter of a local tribal chief who was minding sheep near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a police officer told AFP.

The victim, aged 25, was the daughter of an important tribal chief from the village of Suss, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Kirkuk, Captain Arkan Hamad al-Ubeidi said.

"One of the American soldiers fired at her, killing her instantly," he underlined.

"The soldier said he had opened fire in the belief that he was dealing with a suspect, and claimed that most attacks on coalition forces south and south-east of Kirkuk were carried out by shepherds."